


Idle

by Hollow_Vessel



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alone, GIR is very broken, Gen, His ship broke, Isolation, Loneliness, Zim is stranded, calm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollow_Vessel/pseuds/Hollow_Vessel
Summary: Zim is stranded on a strange planet, which is devoid of all life. Him and GIR have to rough it out, somehow. But things begin making less and less sense.[PAUSED]





	Idle

PAK check:  
Contents: Temporary Resting Mat, Licky Stick [x3], Irken Tea Brew [x3], Chew Nutrients Bar [x5], SIR Unit Control Module, SI Laser Blaster, SI Retractable Enhanced Limbs [ONLINE], SI Material Scanner, WAFFLE [x2]

UTILITY:

MEMORY DISCS: [OPERATIONAL]...  
LIFE SUPPORT: [ONLINE]...  
MOOD: [IRRITATED(?)]...  
HOTEL: [TRIVAGO].

Wind blew gently over the barren hills, medium height, yellowed grass spotted the landscape, flowing gently in the breeze. Atop a hill overlooking many others, stood an alien. One with buglike, magenta eyes. Their skin, green, posture, bad, and height, low. 

It was Zim! A powerful Irken invader. One antenna twitched in the wind, the other, kinked and bent. It would have been painful, if it had much feeling in it at all. He crossed his arms, looking at the foriegn sunset. It wasn’t like anything here, IRK had skies that his specialized Invader optics could not see through, and Urth had... Well, the sky looked different.  
Here it had a green tint to it. The color spectrum of it varied, appearing orange closer to the horizon, the colors above starting to become dark slowly. As it had for multiple hours, actually. The night-day cycle was nothing like what Zim had experienced on Urth. 

The air had a pleasant chill here. It was certainly... The cleanest air to grace the Invader’s lungs. Their antennae settled to a lower position after a few deep breaths. Their eyes became less hyper-focused. Nothing here screamed danger. This was a warning sign, of course. The invader had spent his day investigating, only to find that the most threatening thing on the planet was his malfunctioning (S/G)IR Unit. 

In fact, it seemed that... The unruly pair were the only two living things on the planets surface. Of course ZIM had not the time to explore everything, yet. 

At first the feeling was only slightly disturbing. Perhaps a bit calming in their turmoiled soul.  
But as time passed, an itchiness could be felt. THE ITCH! Here, there was nothing to do. Nothing!

“GIR!” Zim bellowed, tearing his glare away from the hills, looking towards his deserted VOOT CRUISER.

With a whirl of mechanics, and a few sparks, the hatch opened to reveal his robotic minion. They had a waffle hanging out of their mouth, Zim spotted from his distance away.

“GIR!” He shouted again, putting his claws by his mouth in hopes of getting his companion to focus on him properly.

With an erratic movement, GIR took the syrupy waffle from their mouth and pointed at Zim. “HAI ZIM!” They shouted back, waving fervently.

Zim scowled slightly at his enthusiasm, his lack of seriousness with the situation. How dreadful it was, he wished it was easier for GIR to be useful to him. Zim did have the module controller for GIR... Though using it tended to produce... Not so great behavioral changes in the unit.  
“Have you pinpointed the malfunction yet?” Zim asked. Usually this was a task he only entrusted to his computer, but that piece of TECH GARBAGE was a galaxy and a half away. 

“AAAA!” GIR screamed at Zim, causing his undamaged antenna to twitch. Both in annoyance of the sound, and the sheer volume of it. “GIR! Status report.” He barked the order in hopes of jogging their short-term memory.

Their robotic companion stopped screaming and looked sharply at Zim, optics glowing red for a moment.  
“It’s broken as a puppy in space!” He announced, causing the alien to sigh softly. That seemed to answer the question, at least. It wasn’t exactly what the Irken wanted to hear, but...

Zim growled and slammed his fists into his head, then shook it and marched towards the still-smoking Voot Cruiser.  
He laid a three-clawed hand against the side of the purple metal, the frown on his face deepening. 

If he had his base he could easily repair this...  
Zim shrugged his shoulders and let them fall along with a breath, letting away some of the tension from the day. 

Zim carefully climbed inside, in case the security features decided to activate due to the system strain. They had activated on him previously and it had been quite painful. Zim could still remember the friction burns from attempting to pull himself away from the collapsed pilot’s seat.

The alien shook their head as they began pulling up screens, magenta eyes flicking over the rapidly flowing data, barely enough time to process it, but that’s what his PAK was for.  
Multiple errors were showing. Low fuel being the most predominant among them, along with damaged batteries and broken thrusters being the next most dangerous.

Zim growled at the data, then slammed his hands through the holograms, as if that would fix it. This only resulted in the screens being flicked away and being replaced with darkness. As more of the systems powered down, the short bug invader hopped out of the seat. 

“...GIR! Come here.” He shouted, but quieted upon seeing the damaged SIR so close.  
He nervously ran his hands over his antenna as he awaited them. 

GIR walked towards him. “Yes, master?” He asked, tilting his head and sticking out a tongue.

“I need you to fly up and tell me if any anomalies in the TERRIBLE sky. Scan for any signs of life.” He began tapping his foot on the ground, arms taking a crossed position as he tried to shove away any feelings of doubt.

“Do you understand?”

“...I doooon’t know.” His robot replied honestly, before starting to spin in a circle and shouting.

Zim stood still and watched, no longer tapping. His expression pulled down further and his eyes furrowed. “GRRR... Hey. STOP THIS THIS INSTANT! You have a TASK to do! NOW. Scan the area for any signs of life.” 

He hesitated before shoving over the still spinning bot, who fell into silence, and onto the ground. GIR bore an expression of confusion before staring at ZIM.

“PLEASE. I need you to scan the sky-.” GIR cut him off with a screech. “YES, SIR!!!”

He saluted, then flew off in a burst of dust. Zim stumbled back and watched the unit get smaller and smaller in the sky. Zim squinted, shielding his eyes from the light for a moment, before sighing and beginning to walk around again, searching for something. Anything... It couldn’t just be _empty_.


End file.
